TEX AVERY SCREWBALL CLASSIC VOLUME 1 [1943 / 1944 / 1945 / 1946 / 1947 / 1949 / 1950 / 1951 / 2020] [Warner Archive Collection] [Blu-ray] [USA Release] The Funniest Cartoons From The Golden Age of Animation!
There were several masters of animation during Hollywood’s golden era. Of the top two geniuses, one created elaborate fairy tales and ornate feature-length fantasias the other guy was Tex Avery just wanted to make you laugh.
Having already been integrally involved in the development of Porky Pig, Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny for Warner Bros., Avery moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1941 to create a set of comedy masterpieces that defined a new slapstick style for animation, inspiring cartoonists, comedians and filmmakers for decades to come.
Tex Avery’s unit at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was all about breaking the fourth wall; shattering expectations and making audiences fall down with laughter. His one-shot masterpieces, including Bad Luck Blackie, Red Hot Riding Hood and Symphony in Slang, have proven themselves pure gold. And continuing characters like Droopy, Screwball Squirrel and George & Junior not to mention Spike, Red and The Wolf remain unforgettable comic personas among the top rank of Tex Avery cartoons.
Tex Averys cartoons were ahead of their time and their time has come. Finally committed to Blu-ray, this first collection of restored Technicolor® shorts feels fresh and new, and is funnier than ever.
When you load up the Blu-ray disc, you get to read important information and it reads as follows:
Some of the cartoons we get to view are a product of their time. They may depict some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that were commonplace in American society. These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today. While the following cartoons does not represent the Warner Bros.’ view of today’s society, some of these cartoons are being presented as they were originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed.
This first Blu-ray set will delight young and old and will amaze a new generation ready to laugh again and here is what you get to view:
Tex Avery Srewball Classics
RED HOT RIDING HOOD [1943] [1080p] [1.37:1] [7:14] This sensual adaptation of the old fairy story soon liberates its principals from their cute Disney-style forest and slaps them right in the middle of swanky Manhattan. Grandma's a nymphomaniac swinger, and her rustic cottage home a hip penthouse pad. Little Red has become a red-hot singer-stripper; the Wolf is a model of lupine lechery; and the forest is supplanted by a big-city nightclub as the enchanted place of forbidden sexuality. The Wolf tries to pull the old Red Riding Hood gag in order to meet up with Little Red, but Grandma has other ideas.
Voice Cast: Sara Berner [Red / Grandma / Short Cigarette Girl] (uncredited), Daws Butler [Wolf Howl] (uncredited), June Foray [Tall Cigarette Girl] (uncredited), Frank Graham [Wolf] (uncredited), Kent Rogers [Wolf] (some lines) (uncredited) and Connie Russell [Red] (singing voice) (uncredited)
Director: Tex Avery
Producers: Fred Quimby (uncredited) and William Hanna (uncredited)
Screenplay: Rich Hogan (story) (uncredited)
Composer: Scott Bradley (uncredited)
* * * * *
WHO KILLED WHO? [1943] [1080p] [1.37:1] [7:46] The cartoon is a parody of whodunit stories and employs many clichés of the genre for humour. A live-action host [Robert Emmett O'Connor] opens with a disclaimer about the nature of the cartoon, namely, that the short is meant to demonstrate that "beyond the shadow of a doubt, crime does not pay." The story begins A man is murdered, and the detective tries to find out whodunit. But the house he's investigating is decidedly haunted, and he never knows just what's round the next corner. Gags include a panting revolver and a gun with a fuel gauge that reads empty when the bullets are depleted. Though the mansion is filled with many surreal pitfalls and booby traps that slow and obstruct the officer, he eventually traps the killer and unmasks him, revealing him to be . . . which you will have to view to find out, who confesses, "I dood it!" before bursting into tears.
Voice Cast: Tex Avery [Santa Claus] (uncredited), Sara Berner [Cuckoo Bird / Maid] (uncredited), Billy Bletcher [Detective / Ghost] (uncredited), Richard Haydn [The Victim] (uncredited) and Robert Emmett O'Connor [Host] (uncredited)
Director: Tex Avery
Producers: Fred Quimby (uncredited) and William Hanna (uncredited)
Screenplay: Heck Allen (story) (uncredited) and Rich Hogan (story) (uncredited)
Composer: Scott Bradley (uncredited)
* * * * *
WHAT'S BUZZIN’ BUZZARD? [1943] [1080p] [1.37:1] [8:12] A simple but infectiously funny tale of two turkey vultures and one of whom sounds like Jimmy Durante who are suffering from acute food starvation and make up for it by cooking each other, or at least trying to. Hallucinations lead to cannibalism attempts.
Voice Cast: Daws Butler [Jimmy Durante Buzzard / Rabbit] (uncredited) and Dick Nelson [Joe Buzzard] (uncredited)
Director: Tex Avery
Producers: Fred Quimby (uncredited) and William Hanna (uncredited)
Screenplay: Rich Hogan (story) (uncredited)
Composer: Scott Bradley
* * * * *
BATTY BASEBALL [1944] [1080p] [1.37:1] [7:18] Baseball is being spoofed in general. A series of visual gags about baseball and the one running gag has an angry fan screaming "Kill the ump!" Be careful what you wish for..... The gags slowly rise to the level of exaggeration that's typical for a Tex Avery cartoon.
Voice Cast: Pinto Colvig [Pitcher] (uncredited), Wally Maher [First Ballplayer] (uncredited), Jack Mather [Baseball Player] (uncredited) and John Wald [Narrator] (uncredited)
Director: Tex Avery
Producers: Fred Quimby (uncredited) and William Hanna (uncredited)
Screenplay: Rich Hogan (story) (uncredited)
Composer: Scott Bradley
* * * * *
THE HICK CHICK [1946] [1080p] [1.37:1] [7:10] Lem takes Daisy to the barn dance and proposes. Before she can accept, she's swept away by a tempting city slicker. When Daisy finds she's only been seduced to the city so she can do laundry, she returns to the country and marries Lem.
Voice Cast: Sara Berner [Daisy] (uncredited), Daws Butler [Charles] (uncredited), Stan Freberg [Clem] (uncredited) and Paul Frees [Bull] (uncredited)
Director: Tex Avery
Producers: Fred Quimby (uncredited) and William Hanna (uncredited)
Screenplay: Heck Allen (story)
Composer: Scott Bradley
* * * * *
BAD LUCK BLACKIE [1949] [1080p] [1.37:1] [7:08] Bad Luck Blackie is a black cat whose job it is to bring bad luck wherever needed... and it is needed by a poor little kitten, constantly tortured by an evil bulldog. "Whenever you need me, just blow the whistle," Blackie says to the kitten. Whenever the dog bothers the kitten, the kitten blows the whistle and Blackie comes out of nowhere, crossing the dog's path and giving him bad luck... usually in the form of something large and heavy falling on him from the sky! As his luck gets worse and worse, the objects get bigger and bigger. Falling objects that include a flowerpot, a kitchen sink and a battleship in successive order
Voice Cast: Tex Avery [Large Dog] (uncredited) and Dick Nelson [Black Cat] (uncredited)
Director: Tex Avery
Producers: Fred Quimby (uncredited) and William Hanna (uncredited)
Screenplay: Rich Hogan (story)
Composer: Scott Bradley
* * * * *
GARDEN GOPHER [1950] [1080p] [1.37:1] [6:11] Spike the Bulldog goes to the garden to bury a bone and runs into a gopher who is causing all manner of havoc and problem in the garden overall and Spike specifically. After many futile and explosive attempts to rid the garden of the gopher, Spike thinks romance might do the trick so he disguises himself as a Mae-Westish female gopher.
Voice Cast: Bill Thompson [Spike]
Director: Tex Avery
Producers: Fred Quimby (uncredited), Tex Avery (uncredited) and William Hanna (uncredited)
Screenplay: Rich Hogan (story)
Composer: Scott Bradley
* * * * *
THE PEACHY COBBLER [1950] [1080p] [1.37:1] [6:40] Reminiscent of 1940's ‘Busy Bakers’ and ‘Holiday for Shoestrings,’ where an elderly cobbler finds himself steeped in poverty but nevertheless gives his last few breadcrumbs to several hungry birds perched outside his window. Magically, the birds transform into shoe-making elves that comically manufacture enough shoes overnight to replenish the cobbler's store by morning. Here Tex Avery gets a chance to show off lots of shoe gags.
Voice Cast: Daws Butler [Narrator] (uncredited)
Director: Tex Avery
Producers: Fred Quimby (uncredited), Tex Avery (uncredited) and William Hanna (uncredited)
Screenplay: Rich Hogan (story) and Tex Avery (story) (uncredited)
Composer: Scott Bradley
* * * * *
SYMPHONY IN SLANG [1951] [1080p] [1.37:1] [6:45] A young man (a real swinging hep cat) goes to Heaven and steps before St. Peter. But his life story is so peppered with slang that neither St. Peter and Noah Webster can understand him. What follows is a series of sight gags based on Webster's literal interpretations of the slang terms (for example, when the guy says "I guess the cat had her tongue," we see a cat sitting there, smiling a wicked smile, holding a tongue in his paw!).
Voice Cast: John Brown [The Hipster / Noah Webster] (uncredited)
Director: Tex Avery
Producers: Fred Quimby (uncredited), Tex Avery (uncredited) and William Hanna (uncredited)
Screenplay: Rich Hogan (story)
Composer: Scott Bradley
* * * * *
Screwy Squirrel Cartoons
SCREWBALL SQUIRREL [1944] [1080p] [1.37:1] [7:24] Cute little Sammy Squirrel is out looking for nuts when he meets Screwy Squirrel. Poor little Sammy gets beaten up behind a tree, but Screwy reassures us that we wouldn't have liked the short anyway. Screwy then insults Meathead, a pedigreed bird dog, who chases him around through the rest of the short. Screwy continuously provokes Meathead with violence and non-stop action. When Meathead prepares to crawl through a hollow log while chasing Screwy, he sees the squirrel at the other end of the log holding a baseball bat. Meathead: "Duh- you're not going to hit me with that bat, are you?" Screwy, looking at the audience, replies: "What do you think?" Later, Meathead is so tired and banged up from being the recipient of gag after gag that he begs for the cartoon to be over.
Voice Cast: Wally Maher [Screwy Squirrel] (uncredited) and Dick Nelson [Meathead] (uncredited)
Director: Tex Avery
Producer: Fred Quimby
Screenplay: Heck Allen (story)
Composer: Scott Bradley
* * * * *
THE SCREWY TRUANT [1945] [1080p] [1.37:1] [7:01] It's school time at the Little Red (Red is scratched out because the building is blue) Schoolhouse. The truant officer dog finds Screwball at the fishing hole and goes through a bunch of antics trying to find out why Screwball is a truant today.
Voice Cast: Wally Maher [Screwy Squirrel] (uncredited) and Dick Nelson [Truant Officer Dog] (uncredited)
Director: Tex Avery
Producers: Fred Quimby and William Hanna (uncredited)
Screenplay: Heck Allen (story)
Composer: Scott Bradley
* * * * *
BIG HEEL-WATHA [BUCK OF THE MONTH] [1944] [1080p] [1.37:1] [7:46] An Indian tribe needs meat. The chief promises the hand of his daughter, Minnie Hot-Cha, to the first man to bring back an animal of some kind. To prove himself worthy, Big Heel-Watha sets out with bow and arrow. Unfortunately for him, Screwy Squirrel is the first animal to cross his path. In one scene, Big Heel-Watha is chasing Screwy Squirrel, who covers Heel-Watha's head with a Wacky Wave Hairstyler machine. When he gets it off his head, Big Heel-Watha finds that he has a 1940s- style hair wave. Before he continues chasing the squirrel, he looks at the audience and says, "Becoming, isn't it, girls?"
Voice Cast: Sara Berner [Minnie Hot-Cha] (uncredited), Paul Frees [Indian Chief] (uncredited), Frank Graham [Narrator / Interpreter] (uncredited), Wally Maher [Screwy Squirrel] (uncredited) and Bill Thompson [Big Heel-Watha] (uncredited)
Director: Tex Avery
Producers: Fred Quimby (uncredited) and William Hanna (uncredited)
Screenplay: Heck Allen (story)
Composer: Scott Bradley
* * * * *
LONESOME LENNY [1946] [1080p] [1.37:1] [7:46] The last of the Screwy Squirrel shorts, this one finds our hero stuck in a pet shop until he's bought by a rich old bag, their words, not mine, to provide companionship for her dim-witted dog Lennie, and Screwy Squirrel plays tag with him. It's a predictable but entertaining romp that neatly wraps up this Screwy Squirrel Cartoon series.
Voice Cast: Tex Avery [Lenny] (uncredited), Sara Berner [Lady] (uncredited) and Wally Maher [Screwy Squirrel] (uncredited)
Director: Tex Avery
Producers: Fred Quimby and William Hanna (uncredited)
Screenplay: Heck Allen (story)
Composer: Scott Bradley
* * * * *
George & Junior Cartoons
HOUND HUNTERS [1947] [1080p] [1.37:1] [7:18] George and Junior decide to get a legitimate job as dog catchers. The problem is that Junior is afraid of even the tiny (and surprisingly fierce) dogs. George tries dressing as a female dog to lure the dog to the truck; when that fails, he tries dressing both him and Junior in a giant cat suit. Then Junior tries a mouse trap baited with a hamburger from George's lunch and catches George ("a bad thing"). Finally, they dress as fireplugs and get far too much attention.
Voice Cast: Tex Avery [Junior] (uncredited) and Dick Nelson [George] (uncredited)
Director: Tex Avery
Producers: Fred Quimby and William Hanna (uncredited)
Screenplay: Heck Allen (story)
Composer: Scott Bradley
* * * * *
RED HOT RANGERS [1947] [1080p] [1.37:1] [7:59] The cartoon follow the misadventures of two bears who are Forest Rangers George and Junior incompetently trying to douse a mischievous little flame. George would usually come up with a plan to fix their current situation. Junior would accidentally mess it up somehow resulting with an angry George saying "Bend over, Junior" and, when Junior does so, and George delivers a hard kick to his rear end, which is repeated quite often until the fire is put out.
Voice Cast: Tex Avery [Junior] (uncredited) and Dick Nelson [George] (uncredited)
Director: Tex Avery
Producer: Fred Quimby
Screenplay: Heck Allen (story)
Composer: Scott Bradley
* * * * *
Droopy Cartoons
DUMB-HOUNDED [1943] [1080p] [1.37:1] [8:01] Droopy tracks down escaped convict Wolf, and the chase leads all over the world. No matter where the Wolf tries to hide, Droopy is there to take him in. Of course, Droopy has a secret... what that is you will have to find out.
Voice Cast: Bill Thompson [Droopy] and Frank Graham [Wolf]
Director: Tex Avery
Producers: Fred Quimby and William Hanna (uncredited)
Screenplay: Rich Hogan (writer) (uncredited)
Composer: Scott Bradley
* * * * *
WAGS TO RICHES [1949] [1080p] [1.37:1] [7:11] A millionaire with two dogs who are Spike and Droopy leaves his fortune to Droopy with the stipulation that should he be killed the entire fortune will revert to Spike. Guess what Spike gets up to?
Voice Cast: Tex Avery [Spike] (uncredited), William Hanna [Spike] (uncredited), Pat McGeehan [Lawyer] (uncredited) and Don Messick [Droopy] (additional dialogue) (uncredited)
Director: Tex Avery
Producers: Fred Quimby and William Hanna (uncredited)
Screenplay: Jack Cosgriff (writer) and Rich Hogan (writer)
Composer: Scott Bradley
* * * * *
THE CHUMP CHAMP [1950] [1080p] [1.37:1] [7:14] It's the All Ham-erican Sports Carnival at Yank-Em Stadium and Droopy and Spike are competing in a series of sporting events in which the winner will be crowned King of Sports. As a bonus the King will receive a kiss from the Queen of Sports, so Spike attempts to cheat in every event, but they all backfire on him, including winning the title and getting the kiss from the Queen.
Voice Cast: Daws Butler [Spike / Master of Ceremonies / Queen of Sports] (uncredited), Frank Graham [Announcer] (uncredited), Don Messick [Droopy] (additional dialogue) (uncredited) and Bill Thompson [Droopy] (uncredited)
Director: Tex Avery
Producers: Fred Quimby, Tex Avery (uncredited) and William Hanna (uncredited)
Screenplay: Rich Hogan (story)
Composer: Scott Bradley
* * * * *
DAREDEVIL DROOPY [1951] [1080p] [1.37:1] [6:27] Droopy and Spike compete in a number of daredevil stunts to get a job at the circus in order to earn a spot as a performer in the circus. Of course, one ends up being a cheater – easy to figure out who it was.
Voice Cast: Bill Thompson [Droopy / Spike] and Daws Butler [The Great Barko] (uncredited)
Director: Tex Avery
Producers: Fred Quimby, Tex Avery (uncredited) and William Hanna (uncredited)
Screenplay: Rich Hogan (story)
Composer: Scott Bradley
* * * * *
Image Resolution: 1080p (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1
Audio: English: 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
Subtitles: English
Running Time: 138 minutes
Region: All Regions
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / Warner Bros.
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: It’s a great day for classic animation fans as Warner Archive Collection’s long-anticipation of the brilliant ‘TEX AVERY SCREWBALL CLASSIC VOLUME 1’ Blu-ray release, which now boasts a brand new 1080p HD Master that has been sourced from a 4K scan of archival material, this release focuses on the M-G-M cartoons of the 1940s and 1950s. One of the greatest pioneers of animation’s Golden Age of the ’30s through the ’50s was the one and only Tex Avery. Where Disney cartoons were safe wholesome fun for the whole family, and Looney Tunes were wild but not too wild, Tex Avery’s animated shorts were just flat out bonkers. And more than just a little bit horny.
The Blu-ray opens with a disclaimer that reads: “Some of the cartoons you are about to see are a product of their time. They may depict some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that were commonplace in American society. These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today. While the following does not represent the Warner Bros. view of today’s society, some of these cartoons are being presented as they were originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed.”
For those of you possibly too young to know, Tex Avery was a legendary animator was an instrumental factor in the creation of animation icons such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and other Warner Brothers Looney Tunes characters. But he left Warner Brothers for rival studio M-G-M in the forties, where he created some of the most memorable animated shorts of all time. Tex Avery never felt quite appreciated at Warner Bros., and M-G-M let him cut loose and go nuts. Of course, now Warner Brothers own the old M-G-M library, so it all came full circle anyway for this brilliant cartoonist. I suspect you have seen that GIF animation of wolf with his eyes poppin’ out on social media; well that’s a Tex Avery cartoon creation.
Frederick Bean "Tex" Avery (26th February, 1908 – 26th August, 1980) was an American animator and director, known for producing and directing animated cartoons during the golden age of American animation. His most significant work was for the Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, where he was crucial in the creation and evolution of famous animated characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Droopy, Screwy Squirrel, George and Junior, and Chilly Willy.
Almost as important as the location of his birth was its time period of the early nineteen-hundreds. Up until 1927, when Tex Avery graduated high school and left Texas, Tex Avery was immersed in a society with segregated education, resistance to woman’s suffrage, enthusiastic involvement in World War One, and a resurging Ku Klux Klan. Additionally, Tex Avery was growing up in a culture rich with American folk stories and absurd, exaggerated tall tales. Although Tex Avery stay in Texas was short, only nineteen years, it was significant enough to impact his perspective on life and create a lifelong yearning for his home state.
Tex Avery's style of directing encouraged animators to stretch their boundaries of the medium to do things in a cartoon that could not be done in the world of a live-action film. An often-quoted line about Tex Avery's cartoons was, "In a cartoon, you can do anything." Tex Avery also performed a great deal of voice work in his cartoons, usually throwaway bits (e.g. the Santa Claus seen briefly in ‘Who Killed Who?’); and Tex Avery also voiced Junior from George and Junior, as well as occasionally filling in for Bill Thompson as Droopy.
The time during which Tex Avery made his greatest contributions is often referred to as the Golden Age of Hollywood Animation due to the advent of sound cartoons and the popularity of the medium between roughly 1928 and 1945. The majority of his work was done for Warner Brothers and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios.
Tex Avery influence on contemporary animation is arguably unmatched with many of his characters retaining their icon status some 60 years since their creation. One of his most recognizable characters is an unnamed sexpot who first appeared in ‘Red Hot Riding Hood’ and is frequently chased and desired by an unsavoury wolf character.
Creator Tex Avery was an American cartoonist and animator responsible for creating or developing some of the most prolific cartoon characters in the history of animated cinema. Some of these characters include, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Bugs Bunny, Droopy, Screwball Squirrel, George and Junior, and Chilly Willy. His influence was found in almost all of the animated cartoon series by various studios in the 1940s and 1950s and here is an explanation of Tex Avery’s style of cartooning.
Rhythm and exaggeration: Tex Avery cartoons always exhibit maddening speed and an inexhaustible amount of gags. There is such of an overload of visual and narrative information that it is somewhat tiring to watch a long session of his cartoons. This method of performing gags ridiculously fast makes even mild or dry gags seem hilarious due to their speed. Gags are carefully timed and build upon one another in a crescendo of speed and exaggeration. In Tex Avery cartoons, nothing is done on a small scale. Big is earth-size, fast is almost instantaneous movement from one country to another, and violence is excessive. One explanation for this comedy is that portraying impossible feats that cannot be performed in live-action film is funny and here is an example of Tex Avery style of cartooning:
In ‘Dumb-Hounded’ a wolf character runs from America to the North Pole in a matter of seconds. He continues to run around the globe in an increasingly desperate and rapid pace.
In ‘Bad Luck Blackie’ the cartoon starts by using bad luck to call down flower pots from the sky. By the end of the short steam rollers, cruise ships, and air planes are falling from the heavens.
Cartoon Physical Laws: The laws of nature are transformed in Avery cartoons to the point where they show little resemblance to actual physical laws. Similarly, figuration is so bizarre that it is clear the resulting animated world is very distant from our own. The choices for how nature acts are of the moment, always changing, and usually unexpected.
Tex Avery's attitude toward animation was opposite that of Walt Disney, who favoured straightforward storytelling, classic draftsman ship, realistic narratives, and a live-action approach to the staging of action. By contrast, Tex Avery celebrated the cartoon as a cartoon; his work never pretended to be anything but a drawing come to life. His films exhibited a love of exaggeration in his use of absurd gags presented at breakneck speed. An irreverence toward cinematic conventions pervades most of his animated films, as when characters comment on the action happening around them, sometimes by holding up a sign (“Silly, isn’t he?”) or by addressing the audience directly. Tex Avery’s self-reflexive, modernist approach emphasized parody and satire, and his layered gags were held together on the screen by sheer manic energy. Tex Avery brought brashness and an adult sensibility to animation that was aimed not at the family audience but toward amusing himself and his fellow animators and, by extension, all adults.
M-G-M eliminated Tex Avery’s animation unit in 1954, and Tex Avery spent most of the rest of his career directing television commercials. During the last two years of Tex Avery’s life, he developed gags and characters for the Hanna-Barbera Studio. Tex Avery is second only to Walt Disney in terms of his influence on American animation.
Tex Avery sadly passed away while working at Hanna-Barbera Studios at the age of 72 due to complications from lung cancer. In the years prior to his death, Tex Avery was growing steadily more depressed as his fortunes slightly faded with the popularity of his characters.
* * * * *
Blu-ray Image Quality – Warner Archive Collection presents us these totally amazing Tex Avery classic cartoons in a totally awesome 1080p image and of course the cartoons are enhanced with the standard 1.37:1 aspect ratio. Each cartoon was scanned from archival film elements into 4K and carefully restored as necessary, as part of a larger overall restoration effort by the Warner Bros. studio. First of all, it's important to note that all of M-G-M's original Tex Avery nitrate negatives were destroyed in a vault fire decades ago. The result is absolutely gorgeous and the image renders delicate backgrounds with lovely watercolour textures, the cells give us really clean lines and lush painted strokes, which add to the rich Technicolor image at all times. The Warner Bros. studio has painstakingly assembled the best available surviving source materials and given them a fresh 4K scan with extensive manual clean-up. Although these varying source materials, which include Technicolor separation masters, colour reversal internegatives, and other sources and the resulting image transfers look remarkably consistent from start to finish in the areas of colour vibrancy, image detail, and black levels. A nice touch is that optional English SDH subtitles are available for each short. These cartoon shorts have been hard to come by even on inferior DVD discs, and I have certainly never seen the cartoons looking this good before. It’s just a treat to have them like this. So definitely gets a five star rating from me and well done Warner Archive Collection.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – Warner Archive Collection brings these totally amazing Tex Avery classic cartoons in an original English soundtrack of 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio. The audio elements have obviously been cleaned up and restored as well, though you certainly shouldn’t expect a modern level of sound quality. But dialogue, music, and sound effects are all clear and presented with good audio fidelity. Tex Avery shorts are no stranger to volume variances, where dialogue and music cues push and pull against one other violently, but both elements are completely intelligible throughout. No obvious signs of hiss, distortion, or audio sync discrepancies were heard throughout each Tex Avery cartoon. So well done Warner Archive Collection for your sterling work.
* * * * *
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras: Sadly there are no extras on this Blu-ray release. Although no bonus features have been included, the amount and type of content on this Blu-ray disc more than makes up for it.
Finally, ‘TEX AVERY SCREWBALL CLASSIC VOLUME 1’ Blu-ray release, is totally amazing, and might seem a lot for some younger viewers, especially with its running time of 138 minutes. But there are still tons of other Tex Avery animated shorts that could definitely fill up second or third Blu-ray disc volumes very easily. Among them are Tex Avery’s brilliant spoofs like ‘The House of Tomorrow’ and ‘The TV of Tomorrow,’ a series of animated shorts that threw more than a little shade at Walt Disney’s futurist toons. Those old Disney cartoons were made to glorify the modern luxuries of the Atomic Age, and were more than a little “hokey” [mawkishly sentimental]. This release of ‘TEX AVERY SCREWBALL CLASSIC VOLUME 1,’ Blu-ray release compilation down the road in the very near future which hopefully suggests we are going to be getting follow up volumes at some point in the near future, which is great news, as I am a massive fan of these Tex Avery brilliant cartoons. Very Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
